The survey, conducted late last year in Bridgeport, Stratford, Fairfield, Trumbull, Monroe and Easton, asked residents about their top health concerns. Nearly 1,300 people in greater Bridgeport responded to the survey, either in person or online.

Although there were some variations, obesity, cancer and aging were a major concern for residents of most communities.

That didn't surprise Fairfield selectman Cristin McCarthy Vahey, who said obesity in particular is a major health worry. However, she was stunned that roughly half of those responding to the survey reported being either overweight or obese.

"We talk about (obesity and overweight) all the time, but to see those hard numbers takes your breath away," she said.

About 50 people attended Tuesday's meeting, which aimed to enlist community members in addressing the region's biggest health issues.

Bridgeport health director Kristin duBay Horton said, in this age of health care reform, there has been a greater emphasis on identifying the biggest health issues and working out the best way to address them.

"The Affordable Care Act changed things for people in (the public health) field because we're now being told not just to do what we're supposed to do, but to really think about what we're supposed to do," she said.

The survey was coordinated by the Primary Care Action Group, a coalition of hospitals, health departments and other agencies in the region.

In addition to sharing their top health concerns, residents were asked about how much they drank, their height and weight, how easy it was for them to access health care and other pertinent health issues. They were also asked to rank the health of their community.

About half of the Bridgeport residents surveyed ranked their community's health as poor or fair. By comparison, 18.6 percent of Stratford residents who responded ranked their health as substandard, and 6 percent of Easton and Fairfield residents gave their towns' health the lowest rankings.

It's not surprising that Bridgeport residents seemed to have the lowest opinion of their own health, said Heather Nelson, a senior research scientist with Boston-based Health Resources in Action, a nonprofit consulting firm that the Primary Care Action Group hired to help with the project.

Residents from Easton and Fairfield were the most likely to binge drink, with 16.4 percent of respondents from those towns saying they engaged in the activity. Bridgeport residents were the next most likely to overindulge, with 16.2 percent saying they binge drank.

Other major concerns included substance abuse, mental health, heart disease and diabetes.

The data will be used to create a community health improvement plan, which will address some of the problems of greatest concern to area residents, said Lyn Salsgiver, senior vice president of planning and marketing at Bridgeport Hospital, a member of the Primary Care Action Group.